Will Snet Workers Change Union Ties?

Rhetoric Begins As Raiding Season On Snet Union Draws Near

A union member for 23 years at Southern New England Telephone Co., Pete Gill thinks it's time for his union to change.

Don't get him wrong. A technician who took early retirement in July, Gill still considers himself a union man. But he now supports a different union.

At SNET, Gill belonged to the Connecticut Union of Telephone Workers, an independent group whose leaders have fiercely opposed affiliating with a major international union.

Now Gill has gone to work for one of those big unions, the Communications Workers of America, in the latest effort to pull the CUTW's 9,000 dues-paying members into a larger fold.

Under federal labor law, outside unions get their chance to woo the independent SNET union workers every three years, said George O. Carlson, CUTW president.

"We are coming up to the raiding time," Carlson said. "I am sure we are going to have to put up with a lot of garbage."

The larger union can either push Carlson and his executive board to meet to dicuss affiliation or seek signatures from CUTW members to force an election. The CWA would need signatures from 30 percent of the union's 9,000 members -- or 2,700 members -- for the National Labor Relations Board to call for an affiliation vote.

Armed with a just-ratified contract between the CWA and NYNEX in New York, Gill said he can show SNET workers why they'd be better off with the AFL-CIO affiliated union.

"We are here to inform CUTW workers as to what is going on around them," Gill said. "And we are getting a lot of interest."

Carlson, on the other hand, said his team can make a convincing case for the union to stay independent.

"We've been through all this before. There are no services they can provide that we cannot provide for the $1 million we would have to pay them in per capita dues," he said, referring to the payments for each CUTW member that would go to the international union.

"All they are doing is wasting their time and their members' money. It is absolutely ridiculous," Carlson said, expressing anger at Gill's role in this attempt. "Pete Gill is coming to talk to you while he is enjoying the retirement package we negotiated for him."

But Gill argued that SNET workers would be better off with the resources of the CWA behind them. He said the new NYNEX contract, ratified 11 months before the previous pact was set to expire next year, shows the potential benefits.

Under the new contract, NYNEX workers will get 13 percent wage increases over four years and more control over work rules. They were able to avoid concessions on health benefits.

Carlson said NYNEX contracts generally have been more lucrative than those negotiated at other Baby Bell companies, adding that even CWA leaders acknowledge this contract will be tough to match for other workers they represent.

"They've always been out in front," he said of the NYNEX workers. "The difference is that we have been closing the gap in recent years."

The 42-month SNET contract approved in October 1989 runs through March 20, 1993.

Carlson said the reasons behind the regular raids by outside unions are financial.

"This is a completely organized group," he said of his union. "All they have to do is come in and take the money. We are a real cherry for somebody. We know that. But we have nothing to gain for our membership by doing it."

Assessing membership sentiment is tough. Carlson easily won re-election to the presidency last year, though more than half the members failed to vote.

Gill said that is a sign of dissatisfaction.

But Carlson pointed to membership surveys and convention votes in 1990 and 1991 that showed a solid majority want to stay independent.

Gill said Carlson and the other executive board members are trying to stifle debate. The president disagreed, saying he won't shy away from a fight and is confident he can turn back any challenge to the union's independence.